


When We Were Young

by porcupinegoldstein



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Bowtruckles - Freeform, Creatures, Cute, Cute Kids, F/M, First Meeting, Fluff, Ministry Ball, kids meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcupinegoldstein/pseuds/porcupinegoldstein
Summary: Newt and Leta are five years old and both hide under a table at a ministry event that their parents took them to, leading them to meet and become friends.





	When We Were Young

**Author's Note:**

> I just thought them meeting before school would be adorable, and I love the idea of them just both hiding from their families.

A formal event with the well-known wizarding families normally happened when it was just the adults that could attend. This time however, children were allowed to attend. The event was being held at the Ministry, and there were many tables full of food and drinks.

Most adults were milling around and talking to each other and sharing stories and life details, with some of them being about their kids.

The Scamander family had brought both of their sons, Theseus who was thirteen and well into his education at Hogwarts, even speaking to some of the other adults that attended about his classes and teachers. Then there was little Newton, who was five years old and completely disinterested in anything that was going on.

Corvus Lestrange had come as well, and most people tended to speak to him with some high respect. A lot of families were a little fearsome of him, knowing that he had great power and that he cared very little for a lot of things. With him, although much to his displeasure was his five-year-old daughter Leta.

Leta knew that most other children didn’t like her too much. She knew even at that age, that parents would talk about her father in a distrustful way. That meant that the other children wouldn’t trust her and wouldn’t want to be her friend.

So, she had taken to hiding under one of the tableclothed tables. The tablecloths were long enough that nobody would be able to see her and she much preferred that than having to be stared at by adults and other children alike.

Leta was perfectly content, hiding away from everyone. That was until she saw the tablecloth move, and a mop of ginger hair came into view, followed by a freckled face that belonged to none other than Newt Scamander.

“Why are you under here?” Newt asked, gaze to the floor when he realised that the hiding place that he had sought out had already been claimed by someone else.

“Why are _you _under here?” Leta retorted back, face pulled into a scowl. She had wanted some time alone but knew that now she would have to try and find somewhere else. She thought that Newt wouldn’t want to be around her if he knew who she was.

“I don’t like loads of people,” Newt confessed and bit his lip, sitting down opposite to Leta. He made no move to leave, but he also made no move to get her to leave either. One person was okay. It was when he was around too many people that he started to panic.

“Neither do I,” Leta answered and looked over to him curiously.

Newt glanced to her for a moment, but then down to his jacket pocket when it started to move a little.

“Why’s your pocket moving? What is it?” Leta leaned over, on her hands and knees to try and get a closer look to whatever it was that Newt had brought in with him.

“Um...” Newt looked up to her, his fringe falling almost in front of his eyes. His father had tried to slick it back, but it had somehow with a little help from accidental magic gone back to its usual poofiness.

He couldn’t really say much more, when a bowtruckle popped it’s head out of his lapel pocket, tittering slightly.

Leta’s eyes widened as she looked to the creature, with some fascination. She’d never seen anything like it before. Her father didn’t even like having owls in the house, so she didn’t really have much experience around any sort of creature.

“What is he?” Leta asked and kept her eyes on the bowtruckle.

“He’s a bowtruckle. He’s a creature that normally lives in trees,” Newt answered and let the little bowtruckle climb out of his pocket and onto his hand. “He’s small, and I didn’t want to leave him at home. He’s my friend.”

“He’s cute,” Leta commented and smiled up at Newt. “What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t have one yet...” Newt looked down, a little awkwardly.

“He should be named Green Bean,” Leta suggested. Which was the best name that her five-year-old brain could come with for a creature that she had never seen before.

“Green Bean...” Newt repeated and looked towards the bowtruckle, on his hand. “I would say that’s a good name for him.”

Leta smiled and looked towards Newt again, their eyes meeting for a brief second.

“I’m Newt by the way. Scamander.” He told her, knowing that he probably should have introduced himself earlier but, he had gotten too carried away with his bowtruckle and wondering why Leta was under the table.

“I’m Leta Lestrange.”

Newt nodded, unfazed by her family name. He didn’t really care much for what people said about families. He never really listened to his parents when they spoke about that sort of thing, it was boring, and he would go and try to find Theseus to tell him stories about dragons instead.

“Have you got any creatures? We have hippogriffs at home! There are loads of them, I wanna help feed them but mummy says I’m too small and that I can only play with the little ones. My brother is allowed to feed them but, he doesn’t care. He’s boring.” Newt pouted.

“No. I don’t have any. I don’t even have an owl. What are hippogriffs?” Leta looked towards Newt and tilted her head to the side in curiousity.

“They’re like big birds mixed with horses. And they’re really big,” Newt told her using his hands to show just how big they were, or at least try to. “And they can fly! You should come and see them!” Newt grinned. He had never met anyone who was interested in creatures before. His mother liked the hippogriffs but, she wasn’t as interested in other creatures the way that Newt was.

“Really? I’d like to see them. They’re not too scary are they?”

“No. You have to bow and wait for them to bow back, but if they like you then they’re really nice and want to play.” Newt explained and smiled. “I’ll make sure that you get to see some, I promise!”

Leta smiled and nodded. She was quite eager to be able to see some creatures. She was glad that she had managed to make friends with someone. She’d never had a friend before, so she was keen on being able to have a friend now.

Newt was about to speak again but couldn’t get a word out before he heard a familiar voice coming from beyond the table.

“Newt! Where are you?” Theseus spoke, standing close to the table.

Newt looked to Leta with slightly wide eyes and made a shushing gesture. He didn’t want his brother to find him quite yet. He would much rather stay under the table and talk to Leta, but for safety he tucked Green Bean back into his pocket.

“He can’t have gone too far...” Theseus spoke again and walked away from the table, trying to go and find where his brother was.

“Was that your brother?” Leta asked and tilted her head to the side slightly as she kept her eyes on Newt.

Newt nodded and sighed, shaking his head.

“He’s annoying. He probably only wants me because he was supposed to look after me and he’ll get in trouble if he loses me.”

Leta thought about it for a couple of seconds, she didn’t really want anyone to get in trouble, but she didn’t want to stop talking to Newt either.

“I can come out with you and then we can make sure he doesn’t get in trouble?” Leta suggested. “We don’t have to talk to any other people.”

Newt considered this for a moment before nodding. He supposed that Theseus getting into trouble would be mean, and he might get in trouble himself if his parents knew that he had deliberately sneaked off.

“Okay. We can go and find Theseus.” Newt nodded and reached out so that he could take Leta’s hand and the two of them emerged from under the table together, heading in the direction of Theseus.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you all think, and leave any kudos! Thank you for reading!


End file.
